Mission

Living Our Mission

Mission outreach is a founding principle of St. Luke's Hospital, which had its beginnings February 28, 1866. We celebrate Founders' Day to remember our heritage and to honor our founders, whose vision we continue to live out each day. We remember and reaffirm our mission, which is the foundation supporting our service in and to the community.

In addition to the regular services we provide, as a not-for-profit organization, St. Luke's continues to provide much needed charitable care to people throughout the St. Louis area. We support a wide variety of community causes and outreach efforts, both externally and internally, from sponsoring free clinics and screenings for the underserved, to making available an employee crisis fund which serves those in need. These important endeavors embrace a common thread congruent with our mission statement, providing services for those who may otherwise go without.

The programs and services below paint a detailed picture of St. Luke's dedication to improving the health of the community in body, mind and spirit through the wide array of services we make available to all:

Mission Outreach Committee
The Mission Outreach Committee at St. Luke's Hospital is comprised of a group of employees who give their time and talents to live out our mission commitment to improve the health of the community.

The committee sponsors three drives a year to benefit St. Luke's Pediatric Care Center and/or the community at-large. In the summer, the committee sponsors a canned food drive to benefit area food pantries; in the fall, it sponsors a back-to-school drive in which employees donate school items for patients at the Pediatric Care Center; and in the winter, it sponsors a winter warm-up drive in which new and gently-used coats and other outerwear are collected for the Pediatric Care Center and area charitable organizations.

Other Mission Outreach Activities
St. Luke's employees are consistently generous with their time and treasure and recognize that living St. Luke's mission means improving the health and well-being of the community in whatever form that might take. Each year, St. Luke's employees generously support the United Way campaign. St. Luke's employees also support the American Heart Association's Heart Walk every year in a big way, raising vital funds for heart research and education.

Financial Assistance
St. Luke's Hospital is proud of our mission to provide care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. Financial assistance is provided to all patients with an identified need. St. Luke's Hospital reaches out to self-pay and underinsured patients in a number of ways, including raising awareness of Medicaid health insurance and the hospital's self-pay plan for patients. By assisting our patients with the Medicaid application process, St. Luke's helps patients obtain the benefits for which they qualify.

Self-Pay Plan
St. Luke's is committed to working with patients who do not have private insurance and who do not qualify for Medicaid, offering self-pay discounts in line with those that have been negotiated with private insurance companies. In addition, patients may be eligible for a "prompt pay" discount.

Charity Care
Financial assistance may be available for patients, depending on income, assets, family size and medical needs. Eligibility is based on Federal Poverty Guidelines. Assistance may be available in the form of free services or reduced rates.

The Episcopal-Presbyterian Medical Charitable Trust
The Episcopal-Presbyterian Medical Charitable Trust is a nonprofit, grant-making foundation established as a joint healthcare mission of the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and St. Luke's Hospital. The Trust has made in excess of $5 million in grants to nonprofit healthcare organizations serving the needs of our region's most vulnerable residents.

The Trust's board of directors includes members of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and two representatives of St. Luke's Hospital. Most recently, the board made a significant leadership investment of $950,000 in four grants under an initiative entitled "Responding to A Crisis of Care." This initiative played a key role in advancing the St. Louis Regional Health Commission's effort to stabilize the healthcare safety net in St. Louis.

The Trust is also currently partnering directly with St. Luke's Hospital through a $75,000 grant to enable the hospital to expand the scope of healthcare services made available to the parents and relatives of the children being served at St. Luke's Pediatric Care Center in North St. Louis.

Directors' Community Service Projects
Honoring St. Luke's commitment to improve the health of the community, the administrators and directors of St. Luke's Hospital developed and implemented service projects to benefit the local community. The main goal of this project is to use St. Luke's collective talents and resources to give back to the community.

The directors' groups served diverse local organizations. These included a homeless shelter, free meal programs and a cooperative ministry service, all of which serve the St. Louis metropolitan area. Other directors volunteered at a skilled nursing facility and a grief support service for children and teens, and others sponsored a blood drive to support our troops. Many continue to serve these and other organizations by contributing their ongoing time, talent and resources.

Holiday Giving Program
St. Luke's annual holiday giving program is designed to help patients and their families who are in need through donated gifts, food baskets and gift cards.

Employee Crisis Fund
St. Luke's Crisis Fund Committee raises funds to help employees who have experienced a loss of income due to hospitalization, illness, accident, death or natural disaster.

Life and Hope Fund
Through various fundraising activities, St. Luke's Life and Hope Fund generates monies to help defray the cost of prescriptions, supplies, transportation to appointments and equipment for oncology patients with limited financial resources. St. Luke's social service staff interviews patients to assess need and determine eligibility.

COMMUNITY HEALTH

St. Luke's Pediatric Care Center
Located at 8007 St. Charles Rock Road, St. Luke's Pediatric Care Center is a mission-based agency of St. Luke's Hospital that has been providing care for medically underserved and underinsured children in the St. Louis region for more than sixty years. The Center offers care for children from birth to age eighteen in a private practice setting rather than in a clinic setting.

The primary goal of the Center is to establish and maintain access to healthcare for families through a primary care physician, thereby helping them understand and deal with potential health issues before the issues become serious enough to require acute care. The staff consists of two full-time board certified pediatricians, as well as a site manager, registered nurse, social worker and office coordinator, all of whom are dedicated to improving healthcare for children and families.

St. Luke's Hospital funds this community project, with operating costs exceeding one million dollars annually.

Mobile Mammography
In 2007, St. Luke's started a free mammogram program using a grant from the National Breast Cancer Foundation obtained through National City Bank to provide screening mammograms to approximately 165 patients. This no-cost initiative eliminated a heavy financial burden that prevents some women from learning their risk of developing small breast cancers that are too small to discover through breast self-examination or even through clinical breast examination.

In 2008, we continued our efforts with a presence at the Smart Living Expo which encouraged approximately 35,000 people to make smart lifestyle choices in all areas of life. During the event, almost 70 women were screened.

By the end of the program in January of 2009, St Luke's provided free screening or diagnostic mammograms to 445 women. The program was well received by women throughout the St. Louis region that had no other means of obtaining these potentially life saving mammograms.

Surrey Place
Surrey Place is part of St. Luke's Hospital's continuum of quality care in the community. Surrey Place, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility with twenty residential-care private rooms, provides quality care in attractive, comfortable surroundings. Offering total health care services to residents and their families, Surrey Place provides a warm, caring environment with experienced professionals who care for each resident's individual needs. Services include residential care, activities therapy, rehabilitation, a Special Care Unit for Alzheimer's and related dementias, specialized services and religious services.

Pastoral Care
Ministry at St. Luke's Hospital and Surrey Place is provided twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The pastoral care department participates in St. Luke's ministry of healing by working with the healthcare team to provide holistic care in body, mind and spirit for patients, their families, visitors, physicians and employees of all faiths. Conversant in the language of religion and spirituality, our chaplains are acquainted with various resources in the community when specific referrals are requested. The pastoral care department also holds regular worship services in both the hospital and Surrey Place, including Episcopal and Presbyterian Eucharist Services, Roman Catholic Mass, Ecumenical Worship Services, Morning and Evening Prayer Services Monday through Friday, and other liturgical services on special feast days.

Passport to Wellness
Passport to Wellness was introduced to St. Louis area businesses in 2005 as a benefit to the employer community. We partner with employers to identify workforce health risks and address these risks as a means of controlling costs. St. Luke's provides screening services such as cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure and bone density testing on-site at many employer health events.

Medical Mission Work
St. Luke's participates in various medical mission humanitarian projects around the world. The goals are to provide healthcare services to people in need and to educate local community healthcare volunteers and professionals about advancements in medicines and lifesaving techniques. St. Luke's Hospital regularly donates medical supplies and equipment to the medical mission trips St. Luke's physicians and employees undertake, including trips to Peru and Mexico.

Meals on Wheels
St. Luke's Meals on Wheels program serves hot meals daily to homebound people. Recipients are usually the elderly, those unable to drive and/or those who have physical limitations that prevent them from cooking for themselves. St. Luke's serves about 300 meals a week to people in Chesterfield, Ballwin, Manchester, Ellisville, Pond and Wildwood.

Blood Drives
St. Luke's has sponsored blood drives for a number of years, collecting well over 100 units of blood and potentially saving over 330 lives. St. Luke's sponsors four blood drives a year using various local donor organizations and is part of Champions for Life, an American Red Cross frequent donor program.

St. Luke's Auxiliary
Helping St. Luke's Hospital extend its mission of service to one another and the community since 1952, the Auxiliary supports St. Luke's Hospital through fund-raising, community service projects and social events. Funds raised through St. Luke's Gift Shop go to the Auxiliary's annual pledge to St. Luke's to help with many improvements across the campus. In addition, the Auxiliary donates between $5,000 and $10,000 annually to St. Luke's Employee Crisis Fund.

COMMUNITY HEALTH INFORMATION & EDUCATION

HealthAware™ Risk Assessments
St. Luke's HealthAware free and confidential online health risk assessments provide community members insight into their current health. Available assessments include HeartAware, SleepAware, SpineAware, DiabetesAware and StrokeAware.

Clinical Pastoral Education Program
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at St. Luke's Hospital, accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc., is theological and professional education for ministry. Chaplains of various faith traditions minister under supervision to persons in crisis situations, reflecting on their ministry encounters to explore how who they are affects their pastoral practice. They are challenged to develop new awareness of themselves as persons and of the needs of those to whom they minister in order to improve the quality of their pastoral care.

St. Luke's long tradition of providing Clinical Pastoral Education to students from diverse faith traditions is an integral part of their Mission Service to the community in preparation of future clergy and CPE Supervisors for ministry.

Residency in Internal Medicine Program
St. Luke's support for the Residency in Internal Medicine program is an integral part of their Mission Service to the community by preparing physicians.

The medical residency program has existed for approximately 30 years. The number of physician residents graduating each year averages about 14. At any given time, there are about 40 medical residents in the program.

The residents provide medical services to several sites in the St. Louis metropolitan area that care for the medically underserved. St. Luke's medical residents also provide community service by speaking at schools and to various civic organizations.

Community Outreach Services
St. Luke's continues its strong commitment and dedication to improving the health of the community it serves. Through classes, such as the Healthy Living series, events and the HealthAware™ online risk assessment program, we provide health education to children and adults of all ages across our region. We partner with area employers through our Passport to Wellness program, bringing screenings and health-related information to worksites. In addition, special health fairs and workshops are held throughout the year with free screenings and informational booths.

The community outreach department also offers free programs and activities to the public, including a Speaker's Bureau that provides medical and wellness professionals to speak at no cost to local schools, churches and community organizations. The community outreach department also offers a student shadowing program that provides high school students with the opportunity to observe medical professionals as part of class requirements or general career exploration.

St. Luke's Institute for Health Education serves as a meeting place for continuing education for physicians, employees and other healthcare professionals. The facility is the host site for many community healthcare-related groups holding their organizations' monthly meetings, support groups or annual workshops.

Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program
True to our mission, St. Luke's plans and organizes educational conferences and meetings to meet the educational needs of physicians and the needs of other healthcare professionals in the community. St. Luke's Hospital is the only non-university hospital in St. Louis that has earned the national status of "Accreditation" for a four-year term by the American Council for Continuing Medical Education.

Spirit of Women
St. Luke's is proud to be part of the Spirit of Women Health Network, an elite coalition of American hospitals that ascribes to high standards of excellence in women's health, education and community outreach. Spirit of Women hospitals are committed to making good health easier and to helping women and their families take action resulting in better health. St. Luke's is the only Spirit of Women hospital in the St. Louis region. Spirit of Women members enjoy invitations to special events, retail discounts and more. By drawing on the strength and support of a national network, the Spirit of Women initiative enables participating hospitals to re-focus their efforts on community needs.

Site Coordinator for the Hospice Foundation's Annual Teleconference
St. Luke's Hospital is an official Site Coordinator for the Hospice Foundation of America's National Bereavement Teleconference "Living with Grief®" Series. This teleconference takes place in April of each year and is free and open to the community as an educational and support resource.

Website
St. Luke's Hospital has one of the area's most comprehensive health information websites. The site features an illustrated health encyclopedia, a weekly pregnancy e-newsletter, drug interaction information, hospital services and information about physicians on staff.

COMMUNITY SERVICES

St. Luke's Growth and Expansion
Expanded Outpatient Services - The Mr. and Mrs. Theodore P. Desloge, Jr. Outpatient Center, directly across from the hospital on the west side of Highway 141, is one of the most visible signs of the exciting times at St. Luke's Hospital. The Desloge Outpatient Center, consolidates many of our outpatient services for the convenience of our patients.

Laboratory Draw Station, for the convenience of our patients who need blood tests before a procedure or who are coming to campus only for lab work

Advancing and Expanding Care

Cardiothoracic/Neurosurgical/Surgical ICU: This facility is dedicated to treating cardiac, neurosurgical, vascular and other post-operative patients requiring specialized intensive care services. The medical staff at St. Luke's collaborates closely with our esteemed team of cardiothoracic surgeons, neurologists and neurosurgeons to determine the best possible treatment options for patients admitted to the facility.

Center for Cancer Care Acquires Advanced Technology: St. Luke's Hospital urologists utilize St. Luke's da Vinci robotic-assisted surgical system to perform complex, minimally invasive surgery on prostate cancer patients. With this state-of-the-art technology, the surgeon's hand movements are scaled, filtered and translated into precise movements by micro-instruments within the operative site. It offers patients important benefits, including shorter hospital stays, less pain and risk of infection, less scarring and faster recovery.

In the Center for Cancer Care, St. Luke's Hospital and its team of experienced physicians, nurses and other staff members work together to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses for patients. The Center's services and treatments include: mammography services, the Breast Care Center, radiology services, research, radiation oncology, infusion services and the Cancer Resource Center. St. Luke's was one of the first hospitals in the area to acquire the Trilogy™ linear accelerator, further enhancing our abilities to treat cancer.

St. Luke's Rehabilitation Hospital: It opened in October 2008 on the campus of Surrey Place. The 35-bed, 30,000 square-foot facility provides post-acute services to residents of the St. Louis region. It offers intensive inpatient rehabilitation programs and services to patients with severe illnesses and injuries, like stroke, traumatic brain injury and neurological disorders.

Specialized Care

Heart Institute: St. Luke's Heart Institute continues to maintain a high standard of excellence in the medical community by providing specialized cardiac services and individualized care for patients and their families. The St. Luke's team offers state-of-the-art diagnostic and surgical procedures, heart disease prevention programs and rehabilitation programs for recovering from coronary artery disease.

Brain and Spine Center: The first of its kind in the region, St. Luke's Brain and Spine Center provides surgical and non-surgical treatment options for various neurological diseases and injuries to the nervous system. The Center's physicians work together to diagnose and treat a number of brain and spine conditions, including tumors and infections, stroke, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic back pain, movement disorders, head pain, dementia and degenerative lumbar, cervical and thoracic disorders.

The Women's Center: St. Luke's is committed to providing compassionate and comprehensive care to women, while offering a wide spectrum of women's services along with advanced care in medical specialties. Featured services include: mammography services, the Breast Care Center, cardiovascular services, cancer services, Birth Care Suites and perinatal services and osteoporosis services.

Orthopedic Services: St. Luke's comprehensive orthopedic care program offers a full complement of orthopedic services, including: total joint replacements, repair of hip fractures, upper and lower extremity fractures, as well as arthroscopic shoulder and knee surgery.

Family Centered Maternity Care: St. Luke's provides Family Centered Maternity Care, an innovative care model that is the driving force behind the way the hospital delivers maternity services. Mothers and infants are cared for as a "couplet" by the same nurse to facilitate teaching of parenting skills and to promote family bonding. St. Luke's nurses provide an expanded menu of options for labor and pain management, including labor tubs and birthing balls, as well as other physiologic techniques to complement the epidural option.

Vascular Access Center: St. Luke's Vascular Access Center is an outpatient department that provides area physicians and their patients with new options for vascular access-related services. This innovative outpatient facility, located in Frontenac, provides services to patients receiving hemodialysis, chemotherapy, apheresis and all types of home infusion therapy. The Center is the first of its kind in Missouri to offer specialized, long-term vascular access care. Services offered at the Center include image-guided, minimally invasive procedures, patient education and diagnosis and repair of dysfunctional vascular access devices.

Philanthropy at St. Luke's Makes a Difference: St. Luke's Advancing Excellence with Exceptional Care Campaign raised more than $30.4 million, surpassing the $30 million goal. The campaign, which began in the fall of 2005, was the largest in St. Luke's history. Its objective was to raise funds for facility developments and improvements, technology acquisition, quality enhancements and physician recruitment. The Board of Directors and administration of St. Luke's are incredibly grateful for the strong commitment of the St. Louis community.

Friends of St. Luke's: The Friends of St. Luke's program provides a tangible means in which community members can help others and contribute to the hospital's mission to improve the health of the community. Donor support through annual giving strengthens our ability to provide outstanding care with the latest technology and medical innovation.